Stress

What is stress?

Life can be busy and confusing and sometimes things start to build up. Stress is your body’s reaction when you feel overwhelmed by problems or pressure and you are starting to find it hard to cope. Stress can trigger the ‘fight or flight’ response feelings of anxiety.

Some common things that you might find stressful are looking for work, trying to balance looking after your children and your job, money worries, living in an area where you don’t feel safe, or trying to live up to how someone thinks your life should be.

What are the effects of stress?

A little bit of stress can be helpful; it can improve your concentration and give you short term energy to achieve a goal e.g. completing a big task for a deadline at work, or organising a big event.  However, too much stress or feeling stress for weeks and months at a time can cause problems such as:

• difficulty sleeping
• feeling anxious or tense
• struggling to concentrate
• feeling irritable or angry
• headaches
• not enjoying things anymore.

Remember, stress is quite a normal thing to experience and there are things you can do to reduce the feeling of stress.

Dr Julie Smith looks at how stress can make us feel, and how our positive coping mechanisms can reduce these feelings:

Here are some ways that can help to reduce stress:

• Get organised e.g. make a timetable of what you need to do and when you will do it.
• Get plenty of sleep and eat well.
• Take regular breaks and get exercise outside.
• Try practising relaxation or mindfulness exercises.
• Try not to compare yourself to others.
• Talk to someone you trust and let them know that you’re struggling.
• Try some of the techniques on our self-care for mental health page

Take a look at this video from the NHS which has some more top tips for managing stress:

Need to relieve some stress right now? Try this 10-minute meditation from Headspace:

If you are feeling stressed and you are struggling to cope, reach out for support. Visit one of the support services in the ‘get help how’ section below.